Control Systems
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What Is a Control System?
Control systems are gadgets that are used to handle or deal with command
and regulate how other devices behave. Control systems can be sequential or
logical, and they can also be linear. It is important to note that, some systems
or devices cannot be controlled.
A control System is an organization of parts that when connected together
influences or modifies a process. Automated control systems are used for
efficiency, accuracy and reliability. E.g. in controlling the heating of water, a
sensor is used to determine the temperature, a controller is used to control
and compute then issue a command to a control element that does the actual
task such as closing a valve or lowering the thermostat.
Discuss uses of control systems
Automatic doors, heating systems, taxi meters, elevators, washing machines,
process control, device drivers, domestic robots, GPS systems, traffic lights
and other common devices. Technical knowledge of specific systems is not
expected but students should be able to analyze a specified system.
Use of Microprocessors and sensors.
A microprocessor is an integrated computer circuit (chip) that performs the
functions of a CPU such as calculations and data processing.
Outline relationship between a sensor, processor and an output transducer.
An output transducer converts input signals into output signals that can be
used to control a device. Examples of output transducers are buzzers for
alarm systems, light or relays that operate a more powerful circuit.
Evaluate different input devices in the collection of data.
May discuss: Automated sprinkler systems, weather sensors, temp sensors,
manufacturing robots, automatic vacuum cleaner, etc.
Why Use Feedback Control?
The first question is really "Why do you need a control system at
all?" Consider the following.
• What good is an airplane if you are a pilot and you can't make it go
where you want it to go?
• What good is a chemical products production line if you can't control
temperature, pressure and pH in the process and you end up making
tons of garbage?
• What good is an oven if you can't control the temperature? (And, does
it matter if it's an oven in a kitchen or an oven in a heat-treating
department that is used to harden metal parts?)
• What good is a pump if you can't control the flow rate it
produces? (And, there are many times when the flow rate must be
controlled.)
The common denominator in all of these questions is that there is some
physical quantity that must be somehow controlled in a way that ensures that
the physical quantity takes on the value that is specified. There are even
times when the physical quantity should take on some pre-determined values
that follow a function of time. (An example of that would be landing an
airplane where you want the plane to meet the ground following a specified
curve.) We need to think about how to control physical quantities in general,
and to determine what can be done - in a general way - to implement any
scheme we devise.
What is clear is that if you want to control a system, you need to know what
you want it to do, and you need to know how well it is doing. That implies a
couple of things. First, you need to know what you want the system to
do. There are lots of ways you can do that. For example, in your home you
set a temperature by dialing it into the thermostat. That's the way you tell the
system what you want it to do. When an airplane is landing there is a radar
beacon at the far end of the runway that tells the aircraft if it is too high or too
low, too far right or too far left, and how much in all those cases. There are
any number of ways you can tell a system what you want it to do. You can
turn a dial, type a number into a computer program, or you can use some
other physical quantity. (An example of that is trying to point an antenna at a
weather or communications satellite. The satellite's position - which might be
predictable with an astronomical formula - gives the system the information it
needs on where the antenna has to point.) One way or another, the control
system has to know what it has to do.
The other thing that the control system has to know is how well the system is
doing. That radar antenna at the end of the runway when the airplane is
landing tells the airplane what to do, but it also tells the airplane where it is at
(up/down and left/right) and how far off the desired position the aircraft
is. The thermostat tells the system whether the temperature is above or
below where it is desired to be. You can use temperature sensors, pressure
sensors, tachometers and many other sensors that measure physical
variables to get a handle on system performance. One way or the other, the
system has to measure or monitor its performance.
Once you have the information on how well the system is performing, you
have to do something with that information. The problem the control system
designer faces is to determine how to use the information available to develop
and apply a control signal that will make the system do what he or she wants
it to do. At this point in these lessons that what you are just starting to learn.
As you think about what you have to do to control a system, you realize that
the information about how well a system is performing - usually taken at
the output of the system - has to be fed back around the system to the input
and compared somehow with the input - the information about what you want
the system to do - and that comparison gives you the information you need to
produce/develp and apply a control signal. Feeding back that performance
information is what gives us the idea of feedback and feedback control
systems.
Feedback control systems are very important. You've used them. Did you
drive in this morning? Imagine you're going to drive to Toledo to see the
Mudhens. You get in your car, and you use feedback.
• You didn't think about it, but you did look to see where you were on the
road, and you used that information.
• If you didn't use that information, you were effectively driving
blindfolded.
• We're not suggesting an experiment here. But if you did drive
blindfolded you wouldn't get any feedback about where your car was
on the road, and you wouldn't get where you want to go unless you
want to have an accident.
In a feedback control system, information about performance is measured and
that information is used to correct how the system performs. It's common. It's
used in the human body over and over again to correct body temperature, the
amount of light that hits your retina, and lots of things you never have to think
about. But feedback systems don't exist only in the natural world. They're
ubiquitous in the man-made world also. You'll find feedback control systems
in chemical process plants, plants that package food, plants that make steel,
in transportation vehicles to keep the vehicle on course at a desired
speed. They're everywhere, and they don't always happen naturally, so you
need to learn about how to design them.
The individuals who design control systems are a special group. You will
often find electrical engineers who design control systems for aircraft of
chemical plants. Designing control systems takes a person who can bring
together various disparate aspects of a system and make them work together,
and often that process is highly analytical and mathematical. You will need to
learn how to use all the things you know about systems and bring them
together to produce a good design.
In this lesson we'll start to examine feedback control systems and how you
design them. First, we will look at your learning goals.
One should be able to appreciate the complexities involved in control systems
and the designers of control systems. One must be able to trust systems
when used in the real world. For example: a pilot should be able to trust the
auto pilot function of an airplane or the landing gear control.
Some Examples
We want you to imagine that you have a job - actually several jobs. These
jobs will involve designing control systems.
• Imagine that you have been hired by a company that produces
specialty metals. They are setting up a new production line for a new
kind of magnetic material that they are producing for shielding rooms
from magnetic fields produced by high currents. The production of this
metal involves heating it to very specific temperatures and holding
those temperatures for specified periods of time. Actually, the rates of
temperature increase and decrease between the set points are also
critical. If the temperatures vary too much from what is required the
metal produced will have to be scrapped. Are you ready for this
job? It's not tough conceptually, but can you guarantee the company
that they can go forward with confidence that the temperature control
systems will work to produce the required temperature vs time profile?
Here's another situation.
• Imagine that are part of an aircraft control system design team. Your
company has just bid on the control of a new supersonic aircraft. Your
team will need to design the autopilot systems for the aircraft. In other
words, you need to design systems that will keep the aircraft at the
same altitude and on the same heading when the pilot is not actuating
the controls. Can you design a system and guarantee that the system
will work? Remember also that you need to design this system so that
it works when the fuel tanks are full and when they are nearing empty
at the end of a flight, and that the system has to work in all kinds of
conditions including heavy cross winds.
Discuss the social impacts and ethical considerations associated with
the use of embedded systems. For example, tagging prisoners,
surveillance, CCTV, improved safety systems.
Compare a centrally controlled system with a distributed
system. Technical hardware details are not expected.
A distributed control system refers to a control system usually of a
manufacturing system, process or any dynamic system where the controller
elements are not central in location (like the brain) but are distributed
throughout the system with each component system controlled by one or
more controllers.
Outline the role of autonomous agents acting within a larger
system. Technical hardware details are not expected.
Additional technical information:
What Is A Control System?
In most systems there will be an input and an output. This block diagram
represents that. (Control system designers and engineers use block
diagrams to represent systems. Get used to them.) Signals flow from the
input, through the system and produce an output.
• The input will usually be an ideal form of the output. In other words the
input is really what we want the output to be. It's the desired output.
• The output of the system has to be measured. In the figure below, we
show the system we are trying to control - the "plant" - and
a sensor that measures what the controlled system is doing.
• The input to the plant is usually called the control effort, and the output
of the sensor is usually called the measured output, as shown below in
the figure.
For example, if we want the output to be 100oC, then that's the input.
If we want to control the output, we first need to measure the output. Within
the whole system is the system we want to control - the plant - along with
a sensor that measures what the output actually is.
• In our block diagram representation, we show the output signal being
fed to the sensor which produces another signal that is dependent
upon the output.
• A sensor might produce a voltage proportional to temperature - if the
output signal is a temperature.
We need the sensor in the system to measure what the system is doing.
• The sensor measures the output of the system we are controlling.
• It often converts the output into a variable we can use. If the output is
a temperature, we might want to have a voltage we can use to control
a heater, for example. The temperature sensor, for example, produce
.01 volts for every 1.0oC change.
Activity: Identify the system components and their function including
comparator, controller, plant and sensor